Napa Valley Marathon 5K: B. Feldman Wins M1-17 in a Lafayette Sweep of the Podium

• B. Feldman, 12, wins in 20:03 (6:27/mi) — 10 seconds clear of runner-up C. Heintz.
• The top three — Feldman, C. Heintz, and M. Lordan — all hail from Lafayette, CA, and all are 12 years old.
• W. Sheldon, age 11, is the youngest finisher in the top eight, crossing 6th in 22:23.
• B. Martinez, age 5, completes the 5K in 37:38 — the youngest finisher in the entire field of 20.

B. Feldman set the pace from the front and never let go, crossing in 20:03 at 6:27/mi to claim the M1-17 title. C. Heintz gave chase and finished just 10 seconds back in 20:13 (6:30/mi) — close, but never quite closing the gap. M. Lordan rounded out the podium in 21:41 (6:59/mi), 1:28 behind Heintz. All three are 12-year-olds from Lafayette, CA, which made this feel less like a local race and more like a Lafayette club championship.

The next cluster was equally tight. R. Peterson (4th, 22:06), Eli Mayberry of Novato (5th, 22:17), W. Sheldon (6th, 22:23), K. Prabhakara (7th, 22:32), and L. Espiritu (8th, 22:34) were packed into a 28-second window — five runners separated by less than half a minute. Sheldon's 6th-place finish at age 11 stands out; he outran two 12-year-olds and a 13-year-old to earn his spot.

Further back, N. Roman (9th, 28:07) and A. Rushton (10th, 28:35) ran their own separate race, finishing well clear of the rest of the field. Then the course spread wide: T. Jackson (11th, 35:29) through S. Parik (20th, 58:39) covered a broad range of ages and paces, including F. Zhao and R. Rafael — both age 7 — finishing 17th and 18th respectively. The youngest finisher, B. Martinez of Alameda at just 5 years old, crossed in 37:38 to claim 13th — a genuine highlight of the afternoon on a cool, breezy Napa morning.